Major Electro-Voice™ (EV’) Installation at Omachi City Concert Hall, Japan

October 2nd, 2004

The Omachi City Culture Hall (above) has updated its sound reinforcement system with solutions from EV’, Dynacord’ and Klark Teknik’. The new system is centered around the EV XLC™ compact line array, Xi™ loudspeakers and P-RL™ series remote-control amplifiers.

Omachi City, Nagano, is a beautiful town at the foot of Japan’s North Alps. Nearby is the famous Hakuba ski resort - the venue for Alpine skiing and jump events at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Built in 1986, the Omachi City Culture Hall is a performance venue with around 1500 seats. After 18 years, the sound, lighting and air conditioning systems have been replaced - as has the roof surface, which requires protection from considerable annual snowfall! The new sound system was designed and integrated by Ueda Japan Radio Co., Ltd. The installation was completed in March 2004, after extensive product research and discussions with the hall staff about their system requirements.

After these investigations, Electro-Voice XLC127+™& XLC118™ loudspeaker systems and Electro-Voice P-RL series amps with IRIS™ (Intelligent Remote & Integrated Supervision) remote control DSP software were selected as the main components. EASE™ 4.0 modeling and EV’s Line Array Prediction Software (LAPS™) were employed to position and aim the loudspeakers. Electro-Voice Xi-Series, EVI-15™ with Vari-Intense™, and Dynacord Corus-Pro™ small-format loudspeakers were also specified to provide fills and effects coverage. This is the first XLC concert hall installation in Japan.

A total of 27 Electro-Voice Precision Series Remote Amplifiers power all the loudspeakers. Before the renewal, the power amplifiers had been located with the mixing console in the control room. For this installation, a new amplifier room was built under the stage in closer proximity to the loudspeaker arrays. Managing and monitoring the power amplifiers is made even easier using a computer running IRIS software on a user-configurable control screen in the control room. IRIS control software has proven to be a particularly strong time-saving tool at the hall, working with user-specific memory inputs on each amplifier to recall presets for application-specific configuration patterns. GPI inputs and outputs on each amplifier were used to build a set of switches and indicators in the control room.

P-RL series amps allow remote control and supervision of up to 250 amplifiers over CAN network. Other industry-leading features include: RACE-processed presets for EV loudspeakers; Real-time supervision of amplifier operation and loudspeaker load; Automated system checks including full bandwidth measurement of connected loudspeakers; Dynamic range of 115 dB; Built-in state-of-the-art DSP.